Boston Red Sox owner John W. Henry says the team remains "hopeful" of re-signing Jon Lester and indicated a willingness to exceed the $189 million luxury tax threshold in order to do so.

"The way it's structured, you can blow through [the threshold] one year," Henry said. "Again, for next year we have tremendous flexibility, so we could go through for one year. It would not overly affect us [trying to re-sign Lester], but we're hopeful.''

Henry left no doubt that after signing Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez, Lester is Boston's top target.

"Obviously we're doing everything we can to sign a top-tier pitcher, Jon Lester,'' he said. "And hopefully he'll come back."